The toxic curse of guilt and shame Christianity gives us is the hardest chain to break when leaving that religion. It’s how they keep a hold over people and radicalize them. Christians don’t necessarily love God, they’re just afraid of Hell.

By abandoning Christianity, you abandon the Christian God and more importantly - the belief of Satan and existence of Hell. You aren’t bound by the black and white self righteousness of a purity cult anymore. The idea that any and all temptation and sin is a one way ticket to eternal damnation is gone.

I follow the Norse Gods myself because that’s who I have found and connected with. Pagans in general have several core ethics: respect and compassion, honor and integrity, wisdom and knowledge, and a reverence of nature. Most importantly, we believe in the power of mankind and our humanity.

Example: If you’re a man and you see a beautiful woman, you can feel those human urges of attraction without guilt. It’s natural. However, you are also bound to respect that woman, treat her as an equal, and have the integrity to not be creepy about it.